16 August 2015

The Road - She's Not There/ A Bummer

Label: Kama Sutra

Year of Release: 1968

If I'm not careful, this blog is going to get a reputation for continual uploads of cover versions of The Zombies "She's Not There". First we heard the synth pop version a mere few entries back, and now this is the much more antique 1968 cover, slightly wigged out and updated for the groovy set.

Rather than make this an entirely straight reinterpretation, The Road here have some fun with beatless, acapella interludes, long, drawn out and atmospheric electric organ build-ups, and generally faintly ambitious tinkering. It's not a total remodel in the mould of The Panic's version, and nor is it epic and bombastic in the manner of Colin Blunstone's fantastic re-recording under the name Neil MacArthur (something I would have uploaded here long ago were it not already widely commercially available) but it's picking up a few sixties club plays now purely for its swing. It's not hard to understand why.

The Road consisted of brothers Jerry and Phil Hudson, Joe and Jim Hesse, Nick Distefano, and Ralph Parker. They hailed from Buffalo and formed as The Mellow Brick Rode (a much better name, in my view) in 1967. "She's Not There" just narrowly missed a Billboard Hot 100 place, and would perhaps have performed better had the band's manager organised a widespread US tour and promo package for them - but apparently these plans fell through. Rumours have since abounded about his gangster/ mob connections, and there's an interesting article with the group on this website that tries to complete the picture.

The Road managed two LPs - the eponymous "The Road" in 1969, and "Cognition" in 1971 - before disappearing. They still occasionally reform to perform on the club circuit.

Yes, though incorrect songwriting credits crop up more than you'd think - this copy I've got of Al Wilson's "The Snake" credits John Fogerty with the tune, which I actually believed when I first bought it until a friend put me straight… http://www.45cat.com/record/25005

In my defence, I have to say that I've never been overly fond of "The Snake" and only own it for DJ'ing purposes!

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"Left and to the Back" is a blog exploring the dark and dusty world of flop singles and albums, the kind you may find lingering near the stock room of your local second hand record store (if you still have one), or perhaps going for extortionate sums on ebay.

For a better idea about the kind of music featured, both sublime and ridiculous, please go to our Spotify playlist here. Please note that L&TTB is not primarily a sixties blog, even though a lot of good "lost" material was released around this era and will be featured. In short, if I like it and it's interesting, I'll upload it. And sometimes if I don't like it but it's interesting, it will also feature.

The music uploaded to this site is for evaluation only, and where it is otherwise available at a reasonable price I would persuade you to support your local second hand record store by buying it. Many of the posts on here are about digging around in these shops and being thrilled by ridiculous and obscure finds, and I hope I'm persuading a few more readers to get out there and dig around. So please do dig. Man. No blog or download site can ever be an effective substitute.